A Collateral Loss

Our company had to roll out a plan. It had decided to implement it in South Zone first, because of its favorable past experiences. Hyderabad was to be the hub. But by the time the roll out date came nearby, Telangana issue had blown up the political space and Hyderabad and AP was burning in anger and anticipation. The company decided to deter the plan and chose West Region instead. The same story is being repeated for many other companies in all sectors and businesses.

The loss to Andhra Pradesh due to the political crisis has been immense. The losses would amount in thousands of crores, I guess. And the agitation in AP has even cost the other Southern Indian states in general as tourists, companies and investments would choose other safer destinations like West or North.

I think it would be naïve to blame TRS or any particular separatist group for the Andhra crisis. The main culprit in the case is the irresponsible handling of the issue by the central leadership of UPA/Congress. It’s also amusing to note that the members of Nehru dynasty – Rahul and Sonia Gandhi have hardly taken any clear stand on this issue; thereby saving themselves from any possible challenges or issues of ideology. It’s a situation like Nero playing the fiddle while Rome burned.

Whether Telangana becomes a separate state or not, Andhra Pradesh has already lost out heavily. Until the political crisis is resolved, the investor confidence in the state would remain negative. Given the manner in which the central leadership has handled this case, and given the attitude of the political powers in the Center, the future of Andhra Pradesh is muted.

- Rahul

Live Show by Spy Camera!

There have been many Pakistan sponsored terrorist attacks over Mumbai, but the November 2008 attack was perhaps the most shameful. In an unforgettable episode, we watched with horror how our cops tried to pacify armed terrorists with bare hands, wooden sticks and even by throwing chairs at them. There were instances where terrorist’s bullets had pierced the bullet-proof-jackets of our anti-terror-squad members. (Perhaps these were the reasons why the state govt had leadership decided to hide the Pradhan Committee report). After the dust settled, the state government and Mumbai Police took some ‘strong’ measures to prevent such attacks from happening again. It was politically obvious that the measures had to be 'visible'; otherwise how would they regain voters’ support? So a lot of 'visible' measures were taken and our CM, HM, PM and the real M made a lot of 'audible' noises about how they had used this unprecedented setback for setting their houses in order. It seemed they were really working, when I saw some closed circuit cameras installed in the BEST buses (Mumbai’s city bus service).

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These were supposed to be ‘spy cams’. Cameras had come in ‘fashion’ in terror-stricken Mumbai after we had watched almost all of the terror attacks on the live cameras and video footages of CCTVs. So the bus wallas also decided to install the cameras. But I wonder if the cameras were installed for gathering intelligence and prevention of crime, or to do effective 'post-mortems' and making better documentaries? My cynicism is because of what I saw some days afterwards…
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Many of BEST buses had installed flat screen TV sets which used to show some pre-recorded programs and advertisements. This was for entertainment as well as for extra revenues from advertisements. Now one fine morning, I found that the TV screen in my bus was telecasting live coverage of what the spy camera was recording! It showed us the people who were getting into the bus and were settling in. Within next 10 minutes, I could naively understand the 'range' of the intelligent camera and could know exactly which portion of the bus it didn’t cover! I wondered why they were 'giving away' their secrets. Are not spy cameras to remain a secret? I thought it was happening by mistake! But the next day again the same thing was happening! TV screens telecasted what the spy camera was recording! I witnessed this about a month ago. This Sunday again, I saw the same thing! I wonder what the ‘plan’ is!
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Is it not that terrorists and criminals 'plan' their adventures? Of course they do; and if any one of them decided to board a public bus for some bomb blast, they would now be able to know the manner in which to board the bus so as to avoid the spy camera! With TV set telecasting the recordings live, the spy cameras have become useless! After realising this, I became too ashamed at Mumbai Police, or at whoever was responsible for the decision to 'train' the terrorists on 'how to avoid' spy cameras…
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Or is it some other design? Is it that the Police wanted us to 'know' that they had installed 'spy cameras' and if they didn't telecast what the camera was recording in front of us, perhaps we would never know that they had installed a camera? This is more logical. Of course this realisation is worse. What do we expect next? Another terror attack and another ‘post-mortem’? I realise now…
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A vote is more precious than the voter’s life.
(Rahul)

Book Review: Simple.ology: The simple science of getting what you want by Mark Joyner

‘Simple.ology: The simple science of getting what you want’

By: Mark Joyner

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

ISBN: 978-0-470-09522-5

Here is a book which promises to teach you how to go from where you are to where you want to be. And that also in very simple steps… The title and the subject are curious one and I think the job for the author was to live up to the expectations! I think he has fared well. The book does teach, or let us say reiterate the need of following basic secrets of success. These secrets might have been taught or told to you by your parents or grandparents straight from childhood. But that doesn’t mean you should skip this read.

The five laws of Simple.ology come much later in the book. The journey till then is absolutely delightful… Especially the pointers from psychology are amazing. As they say, everything starts in the mind…

It is a very nice read on self-help and self-management… I would recommend it to all.

- Rahul